Inverness Caley Thistle defender Robbie Deas grateful to injured duo after recovery from broken leg
ROBBIE Deas thanked long term injured duo Shane Sutherland and Tom Walsh for giving him a positive mentality as he spent four months out of action recovering from a broken leg.
The 21-year-old made his return to action on Tuesday night from the substitutes’ bench in the 2–1 defeat at Hamilton Academical.
It was the first time he had been on the field since breaking his leg in a 1–1 draw against Raith Rovers in October.
It was the first time in his career Deas had an injury which kept him out of action and says it was a difficult time.
But he says having the support of Sutherland and Walsh, who have not been in action at all this campaign after suffering serious injuries in the play-offs last season, gave him the strength on his road back to recovery.
“I am terrible watching games on the sidelines as an injured player,” says Deas.
“As bad as it is sounds with the amount of injuries we had, it helped a lot having Shane Sutherland and Tom Walsh supporting me.
“I hope they are back playing soon because players like them have helped me a lot to get through each day.
“They must be so strong going through what they are at the moment.
“Even Austin Samuels, Scott Allardice and Cameron Harper were out for a long time. On a personal level they all helped me, and as much as I wanted them on the pitch playing, they helped me in my recovery process.
“I hope there comes a time they are in my position that they are speaking about the game than how they are doing trying to get back.”
Deas also thanked head coach Billy Dodds for showing faith to bring him back into action saying he played a huge part in his recovery.
“The gaffer has been brilliant with me, with my injury I never got an operation so it healed naturally.
“I have to take each day as it comes and watch my workload.
“But for him to trust me and throw me on for the last 15 minutes, I have got to thank him.
“Before the Scottish Cup game with Livingston I had only trained for a week.
“But the gaffer has belief in me and I need to show it on the pitch and repay him.
“To come back in what I think is a good turnaround, most people are surprised to see me back playing.”
Inverness Caledonian Thistle head to Dundee tomorrow looking for their first win in the league in six matches.
Deas says it has been a disappointing campaign and with the quality in the squad, believes they should be higher up the table.
He says everyone at the club is desperate to put the injury crisis behind them and push on with positive results to salvage their dream of promotion to the Premiership next season.
“We are in a difficult situation as we should be higher up and doing better,” said Deas,
“There is no doubt we have a good enough team to go and put on a run on the pitch.
“We have a team that is capable of winning this league. There is no doubt in my mind we can go on a run and do something spectacular.”